Microfluidic Cell Separation Using Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles

Student: Brian Plouffe
Department: Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Shashi Murthy

Abstract

Metastases are a significant problem in cancer research, since metastasis from the primary tumor to distant organs causes 90% of cancer-related deaths, i.e. half-a-million people in the US. Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in whole blood demonstrates that there is a connection between the primary tumor and metastases.
I plan to develop a point-of-care, disposable microfluidic device capable of efficient and rapid isolation of rare CTCs. My approach hopes to provide a unique platform technology to detect cancer and capture circulating tumor cells. Moreover, this new microfluidic tool to capture CTCs could lead to the discovery of targets for further basic and clinical research.
I propose to integrate nanotechnology, biology and microfluidics to isolate CTCs from whole blood focusing, specifically, on breast cancer cells. In order to achieve this objective, I hope to (1) develop a method to enable selective selection of CTCs by nanoparticle labelling and then (2) develop a point-of-care, high-throughput microfluidic CTC capture technology utilizing the now magnetically label cells.